Yes, you can collect Social Security on an ex-spouse’s record if your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you’re at least 62, and you haven’t remarried. The benefit tops out at 50% of your ex’s full retirement amount while they’re alive and up to 100% as a survivor after they die.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses Your ex doesn’t have to agree to it, doesn’t have to be notified, and their own check isn’t reduced by a dollar.
Who Qualifies
Five conditions all have to be true at once:2Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 311 – When Are You Entitled to Divorced Spouse’s Insurance Benefits?
- Your marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce was final.
- You’re 62 or older.
- You’re currently unmarried.
- The benefit you’d get on your own record is smaller than what you’d get as a divorced spouse.
- Your ex is fully insured, which generally means 40 credits, or roughly 10 years of work under Social Security.3Social Security Administration. Retirement Benefits
You don’t choose between your own retirement benefit and the divorced spouse benefit. SSA pays whichever is higher.4Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits
How Much You’ll Get
The ceiling is 50% of your ex-spouse’s primary insurance amount, meaning the monthly benefit they’d receive at their full retirement age.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses That 50% is fixed. If your ex delays claiming past FRA and grows their own check with delayed retirement credits, none of that flows through to you while they’re alive.5Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
You only get the full 50% if you wait until your own full retirement age to file. FRA is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, 66 for birth years 1943 through 1954, and something in between for the years between.6Social Security Administration. Normal Retirement Age
File at 62 with an FRA of 67 and your divorced spouse benefit shrinks to roughly 32.5% of your ex’s PIA, permanently.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses Every month you wait between 62 and FRA raises the percentage a little. Once you claim, the reduction locks in. There’s no bump at FRA to correct it later.
If Your Ex Hasn’t Filed Yet
You don’t have to wait for your ex to start collecting. Under SSA’s independently entitled rule, you can file as long as you’re both at least 62 and your divorce has been final for at least two continuous years.2Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 311 – When Are You Entitled to Divorced Spouse’s Insurance Benefits? SSA won’t tell them you filed.
The two-year rule only applies when your ex hasn’t filed. If they’re already drawing retirement or disability, you can file the day you meet the other requirements.
The Deemed Filing Rule
If you were born on January 2, 1954, or later, filing for any Social Security benefit counts as filing for every benefit you’re eligible for. SSA calls this deemed filing.7Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.035 – Deemed Filing
What that kills is a once-popular strategy: collect the smaller divorced spouse benefit at 62, let your own retirement benefit grow with delayed retirement credits until 70, then switch. That door is closed for anyone born on or after that date. The moment you file, SSA computes both benefits and pays the higher one. People born before January 2, 1954, who haven’t yet filed may still restrict an application to spousal benefits only, but that group shrinks every year.
Remarriage
Remarrying ends your eligibility for divorced spouse benefits on your first ex’s record. If that later marriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment, eligibility on your first ex’s record can come back.8Social Security Administration. What Are the Marriage Requirements to Receive Social Security Spouse’s Benefits?
Survivor rules are more forgiving. Remarrying after age 60, or after age 50 if you have a qualifying disability, does not knock you out of surviving divorced spouse benefits.9Social Security Administration. Will Remarrying Affect My Social Security Benefits?
After Your Ex Dies
Survivor benefits on an ex-spouse’s record are worth substantially more and open up sooner.
You can collect up to 100% of what your deceased ex was drawing or entitled to draw, including any delayed retirement credits they earned by waiting past FRA.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses Those credits, which did nothing for you while your ex was alive, now flow through to the survivor benefit.
Other differences from the standard divorced spouse benefit:10Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
- You can file as early as 60, or 50 with a qualifying disability.
- The two-year post-divorce waiting period doesn’t apply.
- Remarriage after 60 (or 50 with disability) is fine.
The 10-year marriage requirement still applies, and claiming before FRA still reduces the amount. Filing at 60 with an FRA of 67 gets you roughly 71.5% of the full survivor benefit rather than 100%.
Working While You Collect
If you claim before FRA and keep working, the earnings test temporarily withholds part of your benefit. For 2026:11Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
- Under FRA all year: SSA withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480.12Social Security Administration. Determination of Exempt Amounts
- In the year you reach FRA: SSA withholds $1 for every $3 you earn above $65,160, counting only earnings before the month you hit FRA.
- After FRA: no limit.
Money held back through the earnings test isn’t gone. When you reach FRA, SSA recalculates your benefit to credit the withheld months.
Government Pensions After the Fairness Act
For years, the Government Pension Offset cut Social Security spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of any pension you earned from a government job that didn’t pay into Social Security, which often zeroed the benefit out.13Social Security Administration. Government Pension Offset
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, eliminated the GPO and the Windfall Elimination Provision. The change applies to benefits payable from January 2024 forward. If your divorced spouse benefits were previously reduced or denied under GPO, SSA is issuing retroactive lump-sum payments covering the months since January 2024.14Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act – Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO)
How to Apply
Three ways to file:15Social Security Administration. Form SSA-2 – Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits
- Online at ssa.gov, available if you’re within three months of 62 or older.
- By phone at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).
- In person at a local Social Security office. Appointments aren’t required but cut the wait.
Gather your birth certificate, marriage certificate, and final divorce decree. Your ex-spouse’s Social Security number helps but isn’t required; SSA can search on their name, date of birth, and place of birth.
All Social Security payments have to be made electronically, either by direct deposit or onto a Direct Express debit card.16Social Security Administration. Social Security Direct Deposit Don’t hold off filing because a document is missing. SSA can help track records down, and waiting can cost you months of benefits.